Dates to Remember
May 7, 2025
Deadline to file comments in the ATSC 3.0 Transiti... Read More
So far, we have not seen public information about iHeart’s response to the FCC Chairman’s letter expressing concerns over payola compliance actions related to their upcoming country festival station event in Austin, Texas. An Enforcement Bureau Advisory issued before the letter raised concerns that if stations were determining airplay based on artist participation in station […]
Read More →On March 27, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr published a letter he sent to Disney/ABC announcing an investigation into their compliance with FCC EEO regulations by promoting “invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” This marks the latest in a series of letters sent by the Chairman as he announces investigations of several major media ownership entities. […]
Read More →March 9, 2025 Daylight savings time begins; AM daytime-only radio stations or those operating with pre-sunrise and post-sunset authority should check their licenses or PSRA-PSSA authorizations to be sure they are operating during authorized hours April 1, 2025 Radio and TV Stations located in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Delaware, and Pennsylvania: if five (5) full […]
Read More →New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has continued to venture into new territory on several fronts, and all broadcasters should be paying close attention. After ending the FCC’s DEI practices on his first full day as FCC Chairman, Carr recently sent a letter and announced on social media that the DEI practices of NBC Universal and […]
Read More →One week after Senator Marsha Blackburn raised a payola concern in a letter to the FCC, the Enforcement Bureau issued a February 6 advisory to all broadcasters warning about compliance with its payola rules and a related criminal federal statute. The Advisory suggested that stations might be engaging in “covert manipulation of airplay” based on […]
Read More →A recent hearing on the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on the legitimacy of the FCC decision reinstating EEO Form 395-B to collect employee ethnicity, race and gender shed very little light on whether the form itself will survive judicial scrutiny. The FCC conceded during the hearing that the addition of a “non-binary” gender […]
Read More →Yesterday, the FCC voted to open a new proceeding to re-look at its current rules on preventing the airing of commercials on TV stations, cable, and satellite that are excessively loud compared to normal programming. The FCC first adopted loud commercial prevention rules in 2012 after Congress adopted the CALM Act. While complaints about loud […]
Read More →Less than thirty days into the new administration, a common phrase keeps surfacing – the public interest. FCC licenses come with a built-in legal requirement to conduct broadcast operations in the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” But Congress, the FCC and the courts have never adopted a precise definition of the public interest standard. Basically, […]
Read More →February 1, 2025 Radio and TV Stations located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, New Jersey and New York: if five (5) full time employee threshold is met, prepare EEO public file report covering the period from February 1, 2024 to January 31, 2025, upload it to the station online public inspection file and […]
Read More →New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has had a very busy first eleven days in office, issuing a flurry of notices, announcements, letters and other statements. In response to President Trump’s Executive Order eliminating government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and policies, Chairman Carr issued a public notice eliminating all FCC DEI initiatives undertaken by […]
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